Thomas playing with broken hand (maybe)

However fans shouldn’t panic about that affecting the Huskies chances against Marquette in the first round of the NCAA tournament Thursday.

Thomas has been playing with the injury for more than a month with no notable decline in his game.In fact, Thomas won the Pacific-10 Conference tournament MVP award last week with the injury.

“It happened in the Cal game (on Feb. 11),” he said today. “I didn’t really think of it that much. It went numb off and on. And then in practice a couple of weeks ago it really hurt, and that’s when I got it checked out.”

Thomas said the injury hurts when he falls on it or bangs it into something. But so far, he has found the cures to be worse than the injury.

Before the Pac-10 tournament, UW trainers found a makeshift glove at a Los Angeles novelty shop, cut off the fingers and painted it purple.

Thomas tried it in the opening game against Oregon State and decided he was better off without it.

“It was too much padding in it,” Thomas said. “When I shot, it was like shooting off the palm of my hand. You’re not supposed to do that when you shoot.”

Now, trainers are trying to make a thinner, less-bulky glove for him to wear on his injured hamate bone on the lower palm of his left hand.

Meanwhile, coach Lorenzo Romar doesn’t count the injury – which hasn’t been officially diagnosed -- among his worries as the 11th-seeded Huskies prepare for the sixth-seeded Golden Eagles.“It’s not a concern to me at all,” Romar said. “He’s been playing pretty good with that.”

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About Christian Caple

A proud native of Longview, Wash., Christian Caple joins The News Tribune after covering Washington State football and men's basketball for two years at the Spokesman-Review in Spokane (though he lived in Pullman). He is a 2010 graduate of the University of Washington, an avid NWAACC basketball fan, and is unsure how to proceed now that Breaking Bad is over.